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4meAndyou · F
In the past, women did not have the enormous selection of birth control available that they have today, and did not have plan B available cheaply without a prescription, therefore they became pregnant much more easily in a time where it was shameful to be pregnant out of wedlock.
Young girls, in particular, were often disowned by their parents and cast out, and society as a whole judged and labelled women who became pregnant out of wedlock, deeming them sluts or whores. "Decent" men did not want to marry them condemning them to lives of poverty and shame.
The shame of it was very intense. My own former mother-in-law wept and could not speak when my ex husband found out he was illegitimate and wanted to know the name of his father.
She HAD her baby, because, at that time in her life she was Catholic, but so many young girls were so ashamed and so fearful of what their parents would do when they discovered the pregnancy they would scrape up every penny if they got "caught", and go to illegal abortionists if they could not afford to travel to New York or the many other states where it was legal at that time.
There were real horror stories, of girls submitting to the use of wire coat hangers,subjecting themselves to possible uncontrolled bleeding, possible permanent sterilization, infection, and possibly death.
Thankfully, in modern times, the terrible shame of a pregnancy out of wedlock has dissipation, and it becomes more a matter of whether or not it is inconvenient timing for a young woman, and whether they can afford to pay the hospital bill, or whether they have insurance, or whether their fiance will find out they have a boyfriend of a different race on the side.
Young girls, in particular, were often disowned by their parents and cast out, and society as a whole judged and labelled women who became pregnant out of wedlock, deeming them sluts or whores. "Decent" men did not want to marry them condemning them to lives of poverty and shame.
The shame of it was very intense. My own former mother-in-law wept and could not speak when my ex husband found out he was illegitimate and wanted to know the name of his father.
She HAD her baby, because, at that time in her life she was Catholic, but so many young girls were so ashamed and so fearful of what their parents would do when they discovered the pregnancy they would scrape up every penny if they got "caught", and go to illegal abortionists if they could not afford to travel to New York or the many other states where it was legal at that time.
There were real horror stories, of girls submitting to the use of wire coat hangers,subjecting themselves to possible uncontrolled bleeding, possible permanent sterilization, infection, and possibly death.
Thankfully, in modern times, the terrible shame of a pregnancy out of wedlock has dissipation, and it becomes more a matter of whether or not it is inconvenient timing for a young woman, and whether they can afford to pay the hospital bill, or whether they have insurance, or whether their fiance will find out they have a boyfriend of a different race on the side.